Additional info on Dr. Roberts. He eventually went to medical school, private practice as an internist and worked a vegetable farm in rural GA. He made house calls.
I had one of these.
Good post.
The MITS Altair was not the first commercial personal computer although it was the first with some commercial success. Mers Kutt, a Canadian, developed the MCM-70 based on the Intel 8008. The MCM-70 was unveiled in September 1973 although I am not if the machine was sold. Here is a brief article with details about Mers Kutt and his invention.
http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/canadian-inventor-is-the-father-of-microcomputing/116075
I rented one of his condos in Ft. Lauderdale several years ago. It was a mediocre experience because he did not provide the key on the first night (needed to rent another place for one night) and the building was undergoing extensive renovations (never disclosed).
Couldn't afford an Altair, didn't know what I'd do with a computer that just turned on lights. Went back to time shared mainframes, DEC was the big company then.
Give Gates some credit: he knew that it would need a real OS, and real software.
Course he stole that from Galactic Research, but that's a different story...
"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home." Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
"We don't see Windows as a long-term graphical interface for the masses." Quote from a Lotus Development official.
"Inconceivable!" Vizzini
He started a reasonably successful company building calculators - I have a copy of his book, which is now a collector’s item. Although eventually the S-100 bus became fairly robust, the original design of the Altair 8800 was not the best, even by the standards of that time. IMSAI and Processor Technology were important in making S-100 machines trustworthy computers and not just toys.
A little more info. Apparently Bill Gates flew into Macon, where Roberts was in hospital w/ pneumonia, and visited him. He and Paul Allen made a statement.
Roberts life story was one of hard work, patriotism, military service, ingenuity, curiosity. He wanted to become an MD, had to quit school to support a new family, was delayed, and eventually got an MD. He wanted to farm in the county where he grew up with his grandparents, and he did that in Wheeler County, GA (named after Confederate cavalry officer, General Joe Wheeler- who also served in the Rough Riders in Cuba) where they grow delicious Vidalia onions. Just a great “by your bootstraps” story.
Another part of this, is that while Gates and Allen wrote BASIC code they were under contract to do that for Roberts. They proceeded to sell this code outside of Roberts company and, of course people borrowed the code for their own machines. There was a lawsuit over this ownership. Maybe Gates paid Roberts off later- gave him microsoft stock or something- but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth yet again about Gates and Allen- nothing new. Some of you may comment further on this, more in the know. But it is similar to other inventors who never really reaped the benefit of their hard work— it was more important to them to invent, do the work and move to new things. This fellow should have a memorial of him.